RURAL ROUTES/Margot Ford McMillen

Pop Quiz!

In the last month, we've said "appalling" so many times that the
meaning is lost, and we long for other words -- joy, zest, fun,
spring, hope. But "appalling" keeps bubbling to the top,
relentlessly.

While the news channels have such riveting pictures and sound to
offer, the politicians know we're glued to the tube and when the
citizens are away, the pols will play with our futures. It's time to
be vigilant.

3. When you buy organic, you can rest easy that no GMOs were used
in your foods.

Answers: 1. False. Before January, 2003, the "Dolphin-Safe" label
said what it meant, but the Bush administration changed the
regulation to satisfy (as the Wall Street Journal says) a trade
dispute with Mexico. Now, "Dolphin-Safe" means nobody has seen a
dolphin harmed in the nets, but there's no requirement that anybody's
watching. And we weren't watching when this change was made -- we
were tied up in knots over Iraq.

2. False. A product can be chilled to 20 or 30, then thawed out
and labeled "fresh." Frozen, on the other hand, means "chilled to 0
degrees and held." This misleading label was invented in the Clinton
administration, proving you just can't trust an Arkansas pol to
resist something that will make money for two Arkansas corporations
-- Tyson and Wal-Mart. Again, we weren't vigilant. We were watching
Monica Lewinsky, Lewinsky, Lewinsky ...

3. Temporarily true. The 2003 Farm Bill asks to allow animals
raised on non-organic grains to be labeled "organic." That means the
increasingly-huge "organic" food companies like General Mills and
ConAgra could raise animals in feedlots, using GMO grains, and take
advantage of our trust in the organic label to charge a much higher
price. Write, fax, or e-mail your representatives and tell them we
don't want this changes. Then, find out where your food comes from
-- don't buy products from corporate crooks.

And, keep an eye on your statehouse.

In Missouri, the Republican majority is romping through and
destroying the environmental regulations that have kept our streams
pristine and our air, well, breathable for the most part. A bill to
allow gravel mining in some of our favorite floating rivers will
release silt to muck up the streams for miles, choking wildlife and
disrupting fragile species.

A bill to dismantle all local regulations for polluters such as
hazardous waste dumps and confined animals feeding operations (CAFOs)
will allow corporate flacks to bring dioxin incinerators and
football-field-sized buildings crammed with hogs to any neighborhood,
trashing property values without telling the neighbors in advance,
and setting the air poisoners close to the property line.

A bill to allow concealed weapons overturns the clear mandate
against carrying that voters turned in two years ago. There are
already metal detectors at the door to the capitol -- will we need
metal detectors at the St. Louis Zoo? Worlds of Fun? Boxcar Willie's
Branson theatre? The neighborhood elementary school?

The pro-gun bill was co-sponsored by a legislator with a family
history of gun sales, so it's no surprise. In fact, none of this is a
surprise. When pro-neighborhood folks testified against the major
polluters, we saw the same lobbyists we'd seen five years ago when we
passed the regulations. It's the same old stuff all over again.

What's new is that, after five years of failure of the big
polluters, they're still at it. Subsisting on subsidies, accounting
scams, and taking advantage of the new fools that are born every
minute, the polluters convince people to buy land and build
incinerators, CAFOs, "land farms" where gas stations can bring their
waste and let it evaporate into the air. Claiming that they have no
liability, the corporations trash one neighborhood after another,
then move on.

Appalling.

Some things you can count on, though, for joy, zest, fun. Every
spring, our place is awash with bright yellow daffodils. We must have
a thousand. Big ones, little ones. I call the neighbor kids to come
over, fill coffee cans and peanut butter jars, take them home and
still we have a thousand. We are daffodil royalty.

The daffodils bloom for the better part of a month, and then, it
seems to happen on one day, the flowers dry up and disappear, leaving
only the straggly stalks. I hoard the last few blooms, bring them in
the house, try to preserve them.

Joy, zest, fun, spring -- and here's hope. It's farmer's market
season, the perfect time to launch your personal "buy local" scheme
and knock out the props under the international export-import food
system that exploits workers, trashes the environment, sucks up
petroleum and threatens everyone's health.

Get to know your local farmers, and raise a hand for joy, zest,
fun, spring, hope.

Margot Ford McMillen farms and teaches English at a college in
Fulton, Mo. Email: mcmillm@jaynet.wcmo.edu